Many advances in the area of information technology attempt to provide an increasingly mobile society with improved access to the most up-to-date information possible. The range of such information is virtually limitless. For example, while taking a train to work and checking stock prices and the morning news on a wireless handheld computer, a father may want to check up on his child at a daycare center by accessing one of various monitoring cameras whose “real time” output is made available on the Internet by the daycare provider.
Although there is a wide range of information available, many consumers desire common information accessed on a regular basis from content sources that remain relatively constant. Much of this information is text-based. In addition, while the information desired may include some “real time” information (e.g., breaking news, traffic, live events), much of the desired information is “near time” information (e.g., emails, voicemails, daily appointments, regional events, general news, news magazines) or “any time” information (e.g., music, education, tourist). For example, a commuter's morning habits may include reading recent emails deposited overnight into an email inbox on a server at work, reading the top morning news stories from a particular online news source, listening to stories of interest from Web sites such as NPR (National Public Radio) that offer audio content online, and so on.
Depending on a user's circumstances, however, current methods for accessing and consuming such content can be problematic. Accessing and consuming the content can require significant visual interaction from a user, especially when the content is text-based. In many circumstances, such interaction is not practicable. For example, attempting to access and read email or other online content while driving an automobile to work presents various difficulties. Typically, a wireless link (e.g., through a cell phone) to a server needs to be established through which the content can be downloaded, for example, to a cell phone or handheld computer. The cell phone or handheld computer must then be manipulated to display desired content before the user can read it. Performing these tasks while operating an automobile may be quite difficult and even pose a significant safety hazard. Thus, accessing and consuming desired information, especially text-based content, can be difficult or impossible unless circumstances permit a user to devote significant attention to the endeavor.
Various services are available that attempt to alleviate some of these problems. For example, several Web services for cell phones provide online access via dial-up connections that permit users to navigate to desired text-based content which the service then translates into streaming audio content. Thus, by answering a series of questions posed by the service, a user might access an email server at work and navigate to desired text-based content, such as a daily task list. Typically, answers to the navigation questions can be provided by pressing appropriate keys on the cell phone key pad or by speaking into the phone. When the desired text content is identified (e.g., the first task in a task list), the service translates it into an audio stream for the user. The service then prompts the user to navigate to the next desired content (e.g., the next task in the list). Although translating text-based content into audio streams is helpful, such services nevertheless require significant user interaction to navigate to desired content. Navigating to the appropriate content can be a difficult, slow, and distracting process. In addition, accessing text content in this manner requires a continuous online connection via a cell phone, which can be difficult to maintain as well as costly.
Another service currently available for improving access to online content offers a way to synchronize pre-designated web pages with various devices such as PDA's, cell phones, and storage media. Thus, a device can be “docked” with a desktop PC, for example, and various web pages that are pre-designated by a user can be loaded onto, or synchronized with, the device. The user therefore has offline access to desired content without having to personally go online to retrieve the content. Although such services may reduce user interaction to retrieve online content, significant user interaction is still required to navigate within the synchronized content. In addition, because much of the web page content desired by consumers is text-based, such services do not address problems relating to the significant visual interaction required to consume such content. Such services therefore do little to improve access to most content under circumstances where a user cannot devote significant visual attention, such as while operating a motor vehicle.
Accordingly, the need exists for a way to prepare commonly accessed data for presentation in a familiar format that permits easy access and reduces the level of user interaction needed for such access. 